From new iPads to cool new Raspberry projects, a lot happened last week in the realm of tech. Microsoft had a great week, too. The Redmond tech firm offered new Windows Insider builds with features like Start menu Companions, QR code detection in Snipping Tool, and more. In addition to announcing new capabilities for Windows, Microsoft kept us updated about changes coming to Microsoft 365 in the coming months. And we're at it again, giving you a digest of everything important added to the Microsoft roadmap website last week.

2 Microsoft Teams: general channel renaming, file content preview, and more

Rename general channel

The general channel is created when users create a team on Microsoft Teams and is usually used for sharing updates, and announcements related to the projects the team is working on. It's also visible to all team members by default. You can also change certain settings in the general channel, including who can post messages. However, what many Teams users have been asking Microsoft to add for a long time is the ability to delete or rename the general channel. If you're one of those people, you need to wait only a few weeks to finally be able to do it in Teams.

Microsoft is now working on the feature and will allow the renaming of the general channel by team owners or members with permission, come this June (Feature ID: 395931). It'll be available for Teams desktop users.

Preview of file content in chats and channels

Another major change coming to Teams desktop users in June is being able to preview file content in channels and chats (Feature ID: 395936). When you share documents, you'll see a thumbnail image of the file in the thread. You and all the other team members can preview the documents you sent without actually opening them.

Organizations can set custom backgrounds for Teams Rooms

Microsoft has a Teams feature planned specifically for Android users next month. Administrators will be able to upload and set images that reflect their organizations' branding as custom backgrounds for Teams Rooms on Android (Feature ID: 81537) in the Teams admin center. Microsoft will add support for more device types other than Android in the future.

Request to join a shared channel

This is pretty simple. Microsoft will allow team members to send a request to join a shared channel via the channel link (Feature ID: 325330). If the team owner creates and then shares the link to the channel for discussing a new project with team members. Those who believe they can contribute to the project will then be able to send an access request to the owner for review. The owner will be able to approve or deny the request. This will be available for Teams for PC and Mac in June.

1 OneDrive: new Shared folder experience

Microsoft has new features planned for OneDrive, too. The company is planning to introduce a revamp to the Shared folder experience in OneDrive. When available in June, OneDrive will redirect users to the "People" view within their own OneDrive account upon opening the Shared folder, instead of directing users to the sender's folder (Feature ID: 395378).

Release timelines are subject to change

Microsoft adds a plethora of new features to Microsoft 365 every month, but the ones that it announces on the roadmap website before the rollout may not be available on the month it's originally planned to be launched. In other words, release timelines mentioned in the roadmap site should be taken with a pinch of salt.